More than 250 new Illinois laws arrive for new year

Saturday

SPRINGFIELD — Along with holiday celebrations, the end of a year brings another annual event to the state.

It’s the time for new state laws to take effect and get added to Illinois' already voluminous collection of statutes.

This year there are 253 laws that will take effect Tuesday covering everything from gun control to hunting fashion.

This year also marks the end of the 100th edition of the General Assembly. (General Assembly sessions run for two years which is why the state’s bicentennial is only the centennial anniversary of the Illinois Legislature).

During the last two years, lawmakers introduced 9,646 bills. Of those, 1,268 passed both the House and Senate and 1,044 were signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Here are a few of the laws that made it through the process.

Gun control

Lawmakers approved a bill to have the state certify gun dealers, but the bill was never sent to Rauner who had vetoed a different dealer licensing bill. As of now, it remains in limbo.

However, two other gun measures approved by lawmakers will take effect Tuesday. One is known as a “red flag” law and allows guns to be taken from someone deemed to be a threat to either himself or others.

More than a dozen states now have a red flag law, many of them enacting the law in the wake of the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. In that case, the shooter had a history of making threats, but law enforcement had no legal authority to take away his guns.

Under the law, a family member or law enforcement can petition the courts to keep a potentially dangerous person away from firearms for a period of time. The law also allows weapons to be temporarily taken from the person if necessary.

Also beginning Jan. 1, the state's 72-hour waiting period for the sale of handguns will be extended to the purchase of all guns in Illinois. People can still purchase stun guns and Tasers with only a 24-hour waiting period.

Although not a gun control bill, another new law requires schools to annually conduct an active shooter safety drill in the first three months of the school year with law enforcement supervision.

Nursing mothers

Two new state laws apply to nursing mothers.

One requires any facility that houses a circuit court to designate at least one lactation room by June 1. The American Civil Liberties Union said that in many cases courthouse officials would send nursing mothers to public restrooms to pump breast milk, a practice the ACLU said was both unsanitary and demeaning to parents.

The ACLU said it should not be costly to comply with the law. It said an unused or partitioned room should suffice. The law says the room must be equipped with a chair, table, electrical outlet and where possible, a sink with running water.

If you’re a nursing mother chosen for jury duty, you may not need to use the room. Another new law allows nursing mothers to be excused from jury duty upon request.

Golden parachutes

Severance pay for government employees will have limits in the new year.

A new law limits compensation to no more than 20 weeks of pay and provides that severance pay is prohibited when an employee is fired for misconduct.

Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park, sponsored the bill after several reports of government officials collecting generous payouts, even at times when they left their jobs because of alleged misconduct. Cullerton said such payouts “to discredited public officials is theft.”

Hunter pink

Pink is no longer solely associated with breast cancer awareness in Illinois.

A new law allows hunters to wear fluorescent pink as an alternative to blaze orange when in the field. Four other states have also passed laws allowing pink hunting clothing.

Studies have shown that the color pink stands out more, especially against leaves that turn orange in the fall.

Background checks

All new hires at carnivals and amusement parks must undergo background checks, not just those who operate rides.

The new law increases fines for operations that fail to conduct the checks. The law was prompted by the 2014 murder of a man in Farmer City. He was killed by two brothers working for an amusement company. They had criminal backgrounds but did not undergo background checks because they did not operate rides.

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